Unfortunately countries using ICD are less prone to diagnose vague cases of bipolar, they still live in the time where it was manic depression or something else. Manic depression is the severe form called BP1 today. Some do not really believe in BP2, bipolar without mania. Some people want it to be like in the old days, clear bipolar (with a lot of mania), schizophrenia or depression.

I think that is why I "am" depressed and not bipolar in the ICD using country I live in. I have hypomania. But still I am seen as depressed because they don't want to "overdiagnose" bipolar as they say they do in USA. They are very critical to how bipolar is diagnosed in USA.

So when I talk from here to USA, bipolar is not the same thing. Not in the eye of the doctor. It is important to remember that. Most who would be BP2 in USA are depressed here and treated without mood stabilizers.

I wish it was easy to just get a new doc. Many times then I would just walked out when it was suggested I had things I didn't have, based on my body language (and told I did not have things I had). They look at me how I speak, how I sit, how I dress. They do not so much listen to what I say.

Some people are better at explaining with words and docs sometimes need to respect that.